Shaftless rotary printing press

ABSTRACT

A shaftless rotary printing press includes a plurality of individually driven printing stations and at least one separately driven folding unit. The drives which work with one folding unit in one rotation are connected to a drive control unit by a control and parameterization bus and to a device for generating a setpoint and a synchronization signal by means of a parallel synchronization bus, and the drives are each connected to the synchronization bus, which is designed as a ring bus by a bus interface. This yields a rotary printing press without shafting which is so flexible that its printing stations can be synchronized with any desired folding unit from one production to another simply and inexpensively.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a rotary printing press.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

A newspaper offset rotary printing press, referred to hereinafter as arotary printing press, usually includes a plurality of producing units,called rotations, which can operate simultaneously and independently ofone another (maximum 10). Each producing unit includes of reel standsfor the paper rolls, draw rollers for feed and delivery of the paper webat the printing towers, printing stations which are combined as Uprinting groups (two printing stations), Y printing groups (threeprinting stations) or H printing groups (four printing stations) in oneor more printing towers, auxiliary drives on the printing stations(e.g., for changing plates) and the folding unit.

A rotation is usually controlled by a plurality of programmablecontroller systems, which are in turn guided by higher-level controlcenters. To permit efficient data exchange, the systems are networkedover serial bus systems.

A printing station includes a rubber cylinder, a plate cylinder and aninking and dampening unit. One ink color can be printed on one side witheach printing station. A rotation includes all the printing stationswhich operate on one folding unit, i.e., all their printed paper websare sent to one folding unit. The printing stations in a machine areaccommodated in printing towers, a maximum of eight printing stations inone tower (eight-station tower). In the future, ten printing stations inone tower (ten-station tower) will be the goal. In one rotation, amaximum of twelve eight-station towers can work with one folding unit.

FIG. 1 shows a conventional rotary printing press with shafts. One, orin many cases even two mechanical longitudinal shafts 2 linked by gears4 (e.g., conical gears) and mechanical vertical shafts 6 in printingtowers 8, 10, 12 permit, due to rigid coupling, angular synchronizationof all printing stations 14 with one another and with a folding unit 16or 18 within one rotation. Synchronization is always necessary onlywithin one rotation. Longitudinal shaft 2 runs through the entiremachine and is usually driven by a plurality of main motors--for reasonspertaining to flexibility and torque distribution. Coupling anduncoupling of vertical shafts 6 and printing groups 20 take place bymeans of mechanical couplings 22. Furthermore, additional separatingcouplings 24 must be incorporated into longitudinal shaft 2 ifindividual printing towers 8 and/or 10 and/or 12 are to work indifferent rotations. By opening longitudinal shaft coupling 26 betweenprinting tower 8 and printing tower 10, two rotations can operateindependently of one another--printing tower 8 with folding unit 16 andprinting towers 10 and 12 with folding unit 18.

The flexible allocation of printing stations 14 to a plurality offolding units 16 and 18 is determined exclusively by the mechanics. Anyincrease in flexibility must come at the price of an increased expensein terms of mechanical components (higher cost of acquisition of themachine).

Disadvantages of the conventional drive design with mechanical shaftsinclude:

complicated and expensive mechanisms (gears, couplings),

low flexibility in production,

limited accuracy of printed images due to gear play, torsion of theshafts, manufacturing tolerances of the mechanical components, e.g., ±50μm in the print in newspaper rotations,

tendency to vibration due to low mechanical natural frequencies, and

high maintenance for the mechanical parts and for start-up of operation.

For more than 30 years, there have been repeated attempts in the area ofprinting press development to replace the synchronization of the drivecomponents by means of mechanical shafts with a synchro. This is done inconjunction with replacement of the d.c. technology with three-phasetechnology. In the 1960s and 1970s, several attempts were made in thedevelopment departments of printing press manufacturers Wifag, MANRoland, in collaboration with electronics companies to introduce a drivetechnology without longitudinal shafts for gravure printing presses.However, this has not gone beyond the experimental stage in gravureprinting technology. This research was not resumed until the beginningof the 1990s, this time in the area of rotary offset machines fornewsprint. Hamada Printing Press Co. Ltd., the Japanese rotary(printing) machine manufacturer, developed a machine using onlythree-phase motors for each printing cylinder and each draw roller. Themachine had no longitudinal shaft and no register rolls.

For the last several years, there has been increasing activity withregard to newspaper rotary presses in an attempt to replace themechanical shafts, gear and couplings with a drive design having asingle drive with synchronization via a synchro. ABB, in cooperationwith Wifag, presented a rotary printing press without shafting at IFRA94 in Munich. In this eight-station tower printing press, each printingstation, each draw roller, and the folding unit were provided with athree-phase motor. All the longitudinal shafts and vertical shafts withconical gears and couplings were therefore eliminated, thus preventingmost torsional vibration. The individual drive elements of a rotationare linked together only by a fast data line--a synchro. Synchro controlis decentralized in the converter. Setpoints for the converter areselected and synchronized over a very fast serial field bus system. TheSERCOS bus system is mainly used. This background information isdescribed in an article entitled "Dem langswellenlosen Maschinenantriebgingen viele Versuche voraus" Many Experiments Preceded the LongitudinalShaftless Machine Drive), printed in the journal PRINT, Volume 39, 1994.

Newspaper rotary presses are trendsetters in the printing industry andare thus pioneers in the introduction of new drive designs. Technologiesthat prove successful in this field will also be introduced in otherprinting fields, such as gravure printing or printing of illustrations,packages, etc.

Trends in the printing industry include:

greater flexibility (mixed production, target-group-oriented products),

greater productivity (shorter set-up times, higher production speed,less waste),

higher print quality (long-term constancy and greater accuracy <±20 μmin the print),

better economy (lower operating costs), and

lower cost of acquisition of the machine.

European Patent Application No. 0 567 741 describes a rotary printingpress where the cylinders and at least one folding unit are drivendirectly. Several drives of the cylinders and their drive controllersare combined into printing station groups which can be allocated to oneweb of paper.

The printing station groups are connected to the folding unit and to anoperating and data processing unit over a data bus. Within the printingstation groups, the individual drives of the cylinders and their drivecontrollers are connected over a high-speed bus system. The printingstation groups obtain their position difference directly from thefolding unit. The higher-level control system is responsible only forselecting setpoints and deviations and for processing actual values. Thehigher-level control system is connected to a printing station group viathe data bus, a drive system and a high-speed bus system. Thepositioning of individual drives relative to one another and to thefolding unit is regulated in the drive system. In the drive system, dataand commands coming from the higher-order control system are alsoadapted to the form needed for the drive controllers. Overall controlover the data bus is limited to selection of setpoints, setpointdeviations, actual values, and setpoint control. Parameters forprecision adjustment of the individual drives are calculated separatelyfor each printing station group in the drive system.

With this rotary printing press, the printing station groups can becontrolled only as a whole by one folding unit or another due to thefact that the entire control system is divided into a higher-ordercontrol system and autonomous printing station groups. However, it isimpossible to integrate individual printing stations which aresynchronized in one production with one folding unit into anotherproduction taking place in another rotation, synchronized with a secondfolding unit. Thus, the flexibility of this drive design is limited.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to create a drive design for ashartless rotary printing press which is so flexible that its printingstations can be synchronized with any desired folding unit from oneproduction to another.

The drive of each printing station receives all the information neededto operate the printing station because each drive working in onerotation with one folding unit receives signals for control, diagnosisand parameterization over a control and parameterization bus andreceives only information to ensure angular synchronization of thedrives in one rotation over the synchronization bus. Each drive can thusbe regarded as the smallest complete unit of a rotary printing presswithout shafting which can be integrated into any desired rotationdepending on the print product. Because of the use of two separate busescontrolled in parallel, the basic design of a rotary press shown in FIG.1 is maintained, with one of the two buses, namely the high-speed bus,replacing the mechanical shafts through implementation of a synchro.Information management for controlling the drives of such a rotaryprinting press shown in FIG. 1 remains the same.

The flexible assignment of printing stations to a plurality of foldingunits in one rotary printing press shown in FIG. 1 is determinedexclusively by the mechanics, with any gain in flexibility coming at theexpense of increased cost and complexity of the mechanical components.In the embodiment of a rotary printing press without shafting accordingto this invention, the flexible assignment of the printing order of theprinting stations to a plurality of folding units is not disturbed,because each drive continues to receive its operating information overthe control and parameterization bus and can be incorporated into adrive design easily by means of the synchronization bus.

The basis of the drive design according to the present is a strictseparation between the control/parameterization function and thefunction of the synchro on the drive. The result when put into practiceis that a control unit can access the drive over a control andparameterization bus for control and parameterization functions. Inparallel therewith, there is a device for generating a setpoint and asynchronization signal, for implementation of the synchro. The deviceselects the clock pulse and the setpoints for angular synchronization ofthe drives over a synchronization bus. The synchro thus replaces, onefor one, the function of synchronization of printing stations over themechanics.

The following advantages are obtained by this embodiment according tothe present invention:

Straightforward design and simpler handling of the drive in synchronousoperation (=the printing station is coupled and running insynchronization) and in isolated operation (=the printing station isuncoupled, e.g., for set-up work from an ongoing rotation). The drivecan also be controlled, parameterized and diagnosed at any time withoutoperating the synchronization bus.

Only information ensuring angular synchronization of the drives in onerotation is transmitted over the synchronization bus. No control orparameterization data is transmitted. Thus, more than 100 drives in onerotation can be supplied with individual information at least once everytwo milliseconds.

In an advantageous rotary printing press without shafting having aplurality of driven printing stations, some of which are synchronizedwith a first folding unit and the others are synchronized with a secondfolding unit, at least a few of the printing shafts working in firstrotation are connected to the synchronization bus of the second rotationby a second bus interface, with one bus switch being arranged insynchronization buses designed as ring buses. Therefore, in the event offailure of a folding unit of one rotation, it is possible for theprinting stations of this rotation to work easily and without any delaywith an adjacent folding unit. Due to the use of bus switches, it ispossible to connect all the printing stations of one rotation which areconnected to one another by a synchronization bus into a synchronizationbus ring of another rotation. This design provides a simple solution forthe redundancy requirements of rotary printing presses, and in the eventof a disturbance, production can be maintained at least in emergencyoperation without any great time lag.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 shows a conventional rotary printing press with shafts.

FIG. 2 shows a shaftless rotary printing press including a synchro inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows a simplified drive design according to the presentinvention.

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of the drive design according to the presentinvention with a built-in redundancy.

FIG. 5 shows two examples of a bus switch wiring.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 2 shows a shaftless rotary printing press comprising two foldingunits 16 and 18 and three printing towers 8, 10 and 12. Each of thesethree printing towers 8, 10 and 12 has two H printing groups 20, eachcomprising four printing stations 14. Each printing station 14 includesa rubber cylinder 28, a plate cylinder 30 and an inking and dampingunit. One ink color can be printed on one side with each printingstation 14. All printing stations 14 which work with one folding unit 16or 18, i.e., their printed paper webs 32 and 34 or 36, 38, 40, areguided to folding unit 16 or 18, belong to one rotation. A maximum of upto twelve printing towers 8, 10 and 12, each with a maximum of eightprinting stations 14, can work with one folding unit 16 or 18.

Each printing station 14 in the rotary printing press is driven directlyby one drive unit including a three-phase motor with a suitableconverter. The same applies to the drive of folding units 16 and 18. Themechanical coupling between the three-phase motor and rubber cylinder 28may be a direct coupling or it may be a gear or a toothed belt. The typeof mechanical coupling depends on the drive dynamics required. Angularsynchronization of printing stations 14 relative to one another and tofolding units 16 and 18 is controlled in each converter with underlyingrpm and torque control. Encoders with 2048 sine/cosine signals, forexample, are used to meet an accuracy of ±20 μm with a cylindercircumference of 1 m between individual printing stations 14(circumferential registers) and ±50 μm between printing stations 14 andfolding unit 16 and 18 (cutting registers). The actual position ofrubber rolls 28 is detected by an encoder mounted directly on thecylinder. Thus, errors which can occur with mechanical coupling of themotor shaft and rubber cylinder 28, have no effect on the actual valuesignal for regulation of angular synchronization.

The sine/cosine signals entered are set in a data acquisition unit atapproximately four million increments per revolution in the converter,and sent to the angular synchronization control as a high-resolutionactual value. A second encoder integrated into the motor is used for rpmcontrol and torque control.

Instead of mechanical longitudinal shaft 2, gear 4 and vertical shafts 6of the rotary printing press shown in FIG. 1, a control andparameterization bus 42 and a synchronization bus 44 are provided withthe shaftless rotary printing press shown in FIG. 2. Onlysynchronization bus 44 is shown in this diagram. Each drive of aprinting station 14 is linked to synchronization bus 44. For the sake ofsimplicity, only electric motor M of the drive of this printing station14 is shown.

In a comparison to the conventional drive system of a rotary printingpress (FIG. 1), with a drive design of a rotary printing press accordingto the present invention (FIG. 2), it can be seen that mechanical shafts2 and 6 have been replaced by synchronization bus 44, but there have notbeen any changes in the drive design. With the elimination of shafts 2and 6, individual drives which are supplied with information overcontrol and parameterization bus 42 are provided for each printingstation 14. This yields the possibility of controlling andparameterizing each individual drive even if there is no synchro betweenthese individual drives.

Due to the strict separation of the control/parameterization functionsand the function of the synchro, each drive which works with one foldingunit 16 or 18 can be combined to any desired rotation with any otherdrive of the drive design of the rotary printing press by means ofsynchronization bus 44, with each of these drives being parameterized,controlled and monitored by means of control and parameterization bus42.

FIG. 3 shows the drive design according to the present invention in asimplified form. For this purpose, two drives are shown in greaterdetail. The two drives connected to control and parameterization bus 42and to synchronization bus 44. The drive includes comprises two businterfaces 46 and 48 (FIG. 4) for synchronization bus 44, a businterface for the parameterization/control bus, a converter withintegrated technology function, e.g., for angular synchronization, andelectric motor M, which may be an asynchronous motor or a servo motor.Synchronization bus 44 is designed as a ring bus and is connected to adevice 50 for generating a setpoint and a synchronization signal.Control and parameterization bus 42 is connected to a control unit 52.Control unit 52 controls, parameterizes and diagnoses the drive insynchronous operation exactly as in isolated operation. Device 50, whichis at a higher level than the drive units, and control unit 52 areincorporated into the entire information exchange of the machine overanother serial bus system, which may be designed as a redundant system(e.g., system control).

The individual drive units on printing stations 14 are synchronized withone another and with the drive unit in folding units 16 and 18 overserial synchronization bus 44. Synchronization bus 44 functionallyreplaces the mechanical longitudinal and vertical shafts 2 and 6 of themachine. The individual position setpoint is defined for each drive bydevice 50 over synchronization bus 44. The setpoint consists of theangle value of a control vector plus an individual offset angle for eachdrive. In addition, processing of the angular synchronization control,rpm control and torque control of each drive is synchronized at a commonstarting point over synchronization bus 44 by a synchronization signal,i.e., by a predetermined message to all users (e.g., broadcast). All thedrives of one rotation are synchronized with one another due to thestrict cyclical repetition of this synchronization signal over time.

The synchronization bus operates using a master-slave principle. Ahigher-level device 50 over the drive units is the master station ofsynchronization bus 44 (e.g., single master). The drive units are theslave stations. Synchronization bus 44 is designed as a ring bus usingoptical fibers. A maximum of 200 users can be connected to such asynchronization bus ring 54 or 56. The performance is designed so that100 users can be supplied with individual setpoints every twomilliseconds. Each rotation in the machine, i.e., ultimately eachfolding unit 16, 18 is assigned a device 50. Folding unit 16, 18 is thusthe station with which printing stations 14 are synchronized, as is alsothe case with the connectional design with mechanical shafts. Driveunits which are assigned to different devices 50 are not synchronizedwith one another.

The basis of a synchro is the generation of a central rotating controlvector. In addition, an individual offset angle for each drive can alsobe added to the control vector in device 50. The instantaneous positionof this angle value (i.e., control vector plus offset angle) istransmitted as a setpoint over synchronization bus 44 to thecorresponding drive at a certain time in the time pulse of thesynchronization signal of synchronization bus 44. Within the bus cycletime (i.e., time between two synchronization signals), all drives in onerotation are supplied with their individual angle values. Each drivefollows its individual angle setpoint in position and speed (i.e.,angular synchronization control). The speed at which the control vectorrotates is determined from the predetermined web speed of the machineand the circumference of the printing rolls.

The offset angle for each drive is determined essentially from theregister control. The position of each rubber roll can be variedindividually with respect to the other rubber rolls and folding unit 16,18 on the basis of the offset angle. The traditional register rolls andregister carriages can be eliminated by this function.

The strictly time-equidistant synchronization signal is transmitted asthe predetermined message to all users (i.e., broadcast). The intervalbetween two synchronization signals can be parameterized. The samplingcycles of the converters for control of the angular synchronization, rpmand torque are synchronized with this synchronization signal.

Each drive is controlled separately from synchronization bus 44 over asecond serial bus system 42. One or more drives can be controlled,parameterized and diagnosed by control unit 52 over control andparameterization bus 42. Open and standardized field buses such asPROFIBUS-DP or company-specific bus systems such as USS Protocol orARCNET may be used as the bus systems for control and parameterizationbus 42.

FIG. 4 shows a redundant design of the drive design of a rotary printingpress without shafting according to the present invention. In thisdiagram, the plurality of printing stations 14 are numberedconsecutively to facilitate an understanding of this redundant design.Each printing station DS1, . . . , DSn, DSn+1, DSn+4 has two interfaces46 and 48 for connection to individual synchronization bus rings 54, 56and 58. Printing stations DS1, . . . , DSn+2 are linked insynchronization ring 54, but of these printing stations DS1, . . . ,DSn+2, printing stations DSn+1 and DSn+2 have not been activated forthis synchronization bus ring 54. Activated bus interfaces 46 and 48 areshown in black, i.e., the respective drive accepts the setpointselection and synchronization signal of device 50. Printing stationsDS3, . . . , DSn+4 are linked in synchronization bus ring 56, but ofthese printing stations DS3, . . . , DSn+4, printing station DS3, DSnand DSn+4 are not activated for this synchronization bus ring 56. Asshown FIG. 4, synchronization bus ring 56 is not shown completely.Likewise, synchronization bus ring 58 is also not shown completely.Printing stations DS1, . . . , DSn work with folding unit 16, whereasprinting stations DSn+1, . . . , DSn+3 work with folding unit 18.

Each folding unit 16 and 18 is assigned a device 50 for generating asetpoint and a synchronization signal. Synchronization bus rings 54 and56 are connected to respective device 50 by a bus switch 60. The diagramof bus switch 60 shows that its input 1E is wired directly to output 3A,and input 3E is wired directly to output 1A. The other inputs 2E, 4E andoutputs 2A, 4A are not wired together. With this number of inputs andoutputs, 24 combinations can be produced. Bus switch 60 is neededexclusively for implementation of the redundancy requirements withnewspaper rotary presses. Bus switch 60 has essentially the function ofpermitting line control of synchronization bus 44, so that a device 50of one rotation can easily be coupled into a synchronization bus ring ofanother rotation. One bus switch 60 is always assigned directly to adevice 50.

As discussed above, fulfillment of the requirements of a newspaperrotary press with regard to flexibility and redundancy lies in thedesign of the serial bus system with which the synchro is implemented.FIGS. 4 and 5 show the principle of flexible assignment of the drivesand the interconnection of two separate synchronization bus rings 54 and56 to form a single ring with a device 50.

Flexibility:

A printing station, e.g., printing station DS3 in FIG. 4, issynchronized with folding unit 16 during one production run. Withoutmechanical intervention, there must be a possibility for connecting thisdrive to an adjacent rotation for another production.

Each drive which is to run in angular synchronization with other drivesover a synchro can be synchronized by two independent synchronizationbuses 44. Each drive therefore has two bus interfaces 46 and 48. In theexample of printing station DS3, this drive is connected to the twosynchronization bus rings 54 and 56. Thus, the drive can either run insynchronization with folding unit 16 over device 50 or it can work insynchronization bus ring 56 as part of the second rotation (insynchronization with folding unit 18). By parameterization on the drive,it is ascertained from which device 50 synchronization and selection ofthe angle setpoint take place. With this mechanism, the machine operatorcan implement the assignment of one printing station to two foldingunits 16 and 18 by simple parameter switching on the drive.

The restriction to two devices 50 and thus to two folding units 16 and18 is sufficient from a practical standpoint. Synchronization with athird folding unit takes place only when there is a disturbance in arotation, i.e., when there is a failure of a folding unit 16 or 18, andit is covered by the redundancy concept with bus switch 60.

Redundancy:

In the case of a failure of one folding unit 16 or 18, emergencyoperation is necessary to maintain production in the sense that it mustbe possible for all the printing stations of this first and secondrotation to be switched to an adjacent folding unit 18 or 16 or to astand-by folding unit. For such emergency operation, mechanicalprovisions must be taken (possibility of guiding the paper web) andthere must also be technical control options. Implementation of suchemergency operation makes the following demands on the design of thesynchro: with the failure of folding unit 16 or 18, device 50 ofsynchronization bus ring 54 or 56 also becomes nonfunctional. If all thedrives of this first or second rotation are to be switched to anotherfolding unit 18 or 16, synchronization bus ring 54 or 56 must beassigned to a new device 50 of new folding unit 18 or 16. This isaccomplished by means of bus switch 60.

Bus switch 60 is a component of synchronization bus 44 for dividing theline control of optical fiber ring 54 or 56.

FIG. 5 shows two examples of the function of switch 60. Bus switch 60 isalways assigned directly to a device 50 of a folding unit 16 or 18. Thedesign principle is explained on the basis of the following example.

As shown in FIG. 4, the rotary printing press includes three foldingunits, two of which, folding units 16 and 18, are shown for the firstand second rotations. Folding unit 16 fails in the first production. Thesecond production is shut down. Two bus switches 60 are switched toanother line control shown in FIG. 5. Therefore, all the drives whichwere previously in the two separate synchronization bus rings 54 and 56are now combined in one ring 56. Production can then be continued asemergency operation. Likewise, instead of connecting the drives in asynchronization bus ring 54 or 56, failed folding unit 16 or 18 may alsobe replaced by a stand-by folding unit. In this case, synchronizationbus ring 54 or 56 is connected to a device of the stand-by unit byswitching the switches 60.

We claim:
 1. A shaftless rotary printing press, comprising:a drivecontroller; a plurality of drives coupled to the drive controller via acontrol and parameterization bus, each of the plurality of drivesincluding an electric motor and a bus interface coupled to asynchronization bus, the synchronization bus including a ring bus andoperating in parallel to the control and parameterization bus; aplurality of individually driven printing stations, each of theplurality of individually driven printing stations being driven by arespective one of the plurality of drives; at least one separatelydriven folding unit operating with the plurality of drives in onerotation; and a device coupled to the first synchronization bus andgenerating a first setpoint and a first synchronization signal.
 2. Theshaftless rotary printing press according to claim 9, wherein thecontrol and parameterization bus includes an open field bus.
 3. Theshaftless rotary printing press according to claim 1, wherein thesynchronization bus includes a high-speed bus system.
 4. The shaftlessrotary printing press according to claim 1, wherein only informationensuring angular synchronization of the plurality of drives in the onerotation is transmitted over the synchronization bus.
 5. The shaftlessrotary printing press according to claim 1, wherein a plurality ofsignals for control, diagnosis, and parameterization of each of theplurality of drives are transmitted over the control andparameterization bus.
 6. The shaftless rotary printing press accordingto claim 1, wherein an angle value of a control vector, an offset angleand a synchronization signal are provided as information for each of theplurality of drives.
 7. The shaftless rotary printing press according toclaim 1, wherein the synchronization bus includes a transmission line,the transmission line being an optical fiber.
 8. A shaftless rotaryprinting press, comprising:a drive controller; a first separately drivenfolding unit; a second separately driven folding unit; a plurality ofdrives coupled to the drive controller via a control andparameterization bus, each of the plurality of drives including anelectric motor, a first interface coupled to a first synchronizationbus, and a second bus interface coupled to a second synchronization bus,each of the first synchronization bus and the second synchronization busincluding a ring bus and operating in parallel to the control andparameterization bus, each respective one of the plurality of drivesoperating with a selected one of i) the first separately driven foldingunit in a first rotation via the first bus interface, and ii) the secondseparately driven folding unit in a second rotation via the second businterface; a plurality of individually driven printing stations, each ofthe plurality of individually driven printing stations being driven by arespective one of the plurality of drives; a first device coupled to thefirst synchronization bus via a first bus switch generating a firstsetpoint and a first synchronization signal; and a second device coupledto the second synchronization bus via a second bus switch generating asecond setpoint and a second synchronization signal.
 9. The shaftlessrotary printing press according to claim 6, wherein the control andparameterization bus includes an open field bus.
 10. The shaftlessrotary printing press according to claim 8, wherein at least one of thefirst synchronization bus and the second synchronization bus includes ahigh-speed bus system.
 11. The shaftless rotary printing press accordingto claim 8, wherein only information ensuring angular synchronization ofeach of the plurality of drives operating in the first rotation istransmitted over the first synchronization bus and wherein onlyinformation ensuring angular synchronization of each of the plurality ofdrives operating the second rotation is transmitted over the secondsynchronization bus.
 12. The shaftless rotary printing press accordingto claim 8, wherein a plurality of signals for control, diagnosis, andparameterization of each of the plurality of drives are transmitted overthe control and parameterization bus.
 13. The shaftless rotary printingpress according to claim 8, wherein an angle value of a control vector,an offset angle and a synchronization signal are provided as informationof each of the plurality of drives.
 14. The shaftless rotary printingpress according to claim 8, wherein each of the first synchronizationbus and the second synchronization bus includes a transmission line, thetransmission line being an optical fiber.